Sandy! Stage 1 - Operation chromeout

I'm pretty new around TW, but learning as I go as so many others are.

I wanted to start this build thread here to
A. have a log of how things went from the get go when things were all stock
B. be able to pick the brains of you guys who have all been through this before.

Its a wealth of knowledge around here and I hope to tap into it as I get more into the serious parts of the build like the lift.
"Sandy" is a 2020 Off Road DCLB with only 8,500 miles on her when I got her and was acquired (actually shipped to my door) from a dealership in Garland TX. Took a few hundred to get it up here and I purchased her direct sight unseen. She still has some factory warranty left on her and I did my homework coming from the Jeep world so I knew what to expect.


I sold my Jeep back in August of last year, and its taken me this long to find a rig with all the must-haves I wanted. The Jeep was set up fairly well for having 0 lift, only Fox shocks, flat fenders for clearance and some 285/75/17s. We took Blue to 3 different EJSs and took everything but 8 and up trails doing it. This is the direction I am going to take Sandy, and that is a similar over landing/rock-crawling hybrid setup.

My list of must haves while not super unique did present some challenges in todays truck market:


- 2020
- Quicksand
- Off Road
- Double cab
- Long Bed
- no mods
- under 10k miles
- under 1000 miles away.
It was a long wait but I finally found what I was looking for!






I am going to drive her with cosmetic mods for now until the BtoB warranty runs out around this time next near. Until then, I will invest in a hard tonneau cover, a bed rack and some other stuff.

AFTER the warranty runs out, I'm going to go whole hog on Sandy, as I have quite a bit saved up to get a full 2" - 3" ADS lift w/full LCA mounts and LCAs leaf pack, bumpers, winch, heritage stripes, and quite a bit of other stuff.


For now however its operation get rid of the chrome! Its the only part of my new truck I don't like, and should be super easy to fix.


Here is what I have so far:





The blackout badges are not OEM, nor are they OEM-like covers, but actual blackout badges. They are knockoffs I'm sure, but at least the "A"s are open unlike the OEM covers. The tailgate Tacoma badge is OEM.



The bumper covers are an Amazon find until I replace them fully with something armored. (apologies for the funky colored light in these pics) They were only $119 or so on Amazon, and the color match while not perfect will do just fine for now. These too are also not covers but the actual caps that are normally chrome. Some of the caps I've seen just tuck under the bumper cover then stick on over the chrome parts. Even though this may be a touch more work to get on, I wanted the actual caps and not a cover that went over the chrome.





They are also surprisingly well finished and painted regardless of the minute color difference..........WAY better than chrome!
The attachment points seem SUPER stout when handling them:




Hopefully by the end of this build Ill have Sandy from this:



To this:




Im sure this is generic stuff to a lot of you guys, but its all new and damn fun for me!

Cheers and thanks for having me

 

fcking shit JK jeep.

 

Thanks? lol - nuthin like a hardy welcome - The Jeep was fun I I still love Wrangers but they have their issues that is no doubt. The Pentastar got the dreaded engine ticks right on queue at 89,000 miles, so I sold it for about $1000 less than I paid for it 7 years and 80,000 some odd miles earlier.

 

Haha awesome stuff! I Didn’t even have the truck in hand it was ordered when I started buying mods. I said this is the last one. Now I think I voided every warranty I paid for but worth it. Like the sandy reference lol

 

Haha!! I guess I should have elaberated.
Bought my 2nd jeep in 2018 and am really enjoying it!! My 1st was a "79" CJ7 way back in 1986 or so. We have a few jeeper hold outs and several people that came from Jeeps.
Anyhoo...Welcome aboard!!

 

Thanks gents!

Good looking Lima!

My brother has a 2020 Lima with an OEM 2" lift and some 37s. Jeep makes it SO easy to put larger tires on!
Missing that a bit with the Taco, but there are SO many more things I like about the Taco.

Will DEFINITELY need some assistance when it comes time for the real deal mods like rinf and pinions, lift, ect ect.
It's supposed to be 65 deg here tomorrow so might be a good day to try and slap some of my cosmetic AM on.

Thanks again and cheers!

 

Well,
Ive got to pay my brother back for the 20k he loaned me to purchase Sandy, so Im a bit limited on larger mods atm, but one mod I DEFINITELY wanted prior to the next trip the wife and I are taking is a locking bed cover.
We have an off road trailer I purchased Sandy to tow around, and we are leaving in April for 2 or 3 weeks in New Mexico, so I really wanted something to lock down the bed area, so I can have some usable cargo space.

After a ton of research, I chose the Retrax XR Pro as it has channels for the Up Top Truss I want to put on later, and will support up to 500 lbs as its all aluminum.
That should be here hopefully by next week so I can get cracking on installing that. I also installed some P&P LED reverse lights which seem to have improved rear visibility tremendously.

Some first experiments hooking up our OffGrid Expedition 2.0 trailer to the new Taco. I found the Taco does not need the longer hitch extension my Jeep needed and it sticks out a bit farther than Id like, but I'm happy with the lack of major sag Im getting with the trailer hooked up and the OEM springs w/no helpers






The trailer has a bit more of a nose down attitude than I like, so I have purchased a new shorter Curt Engineering 7,500 lb hitch to keep the hitch length as short as possible and have reversed the Max Coupler on the Tacoma side and put it on the top of the hitch so it is in the rise position. Hopefully this will give me the needed nose up attitude I need for the trailer.
Ill put up another install once it gets above 35 deg here and after I get the blackout package installed and hopefully the Retrax XR Pro as well.

Cheers!

 

I feel for my UPS guy..............

I ordered a Retrax XR-Pro for my truck and had it delivered about 5 days ago. In my excitement I installed the whole thing which went amazingly well. I was very happy with the whole thing, as it fit and operated perfectly. It looked amazing as well:






Afterward of course I discovered they had sent and I installed MX rails instead of the XR rails I had purchased.

I contacted the manu (TruckBrigade) and spoke directly with one of their guys who took care of the whole thing. Shout out to TruckBrigade btw.
LSS, I had to remove then re-pack everything back up in the OEM packaging and the same guy had to come back to collect the incorrect cover, which came in the same two boxes, 1 20 or 30 lbs and 1 90+ lbs.





During which the manu sent a whole new (correct) unit out, again with the same two boxes. Same UPS guy lugged them a 3rd time. Nice guy, but I'm sure it sucked, lol

Think I might owe that guy a bottle of whiskey!

Ive also got all the chrome accent parts replaced as well as a Redarc Tow-Pro installed, pics to come

 

Blackout badging went well. These are knockoffs, and this is one of the few cases where I actually like the knockoff stuff better than the OEM stuff. As far as I can tell the OEM stuff are just covers for the chrome badges.

I also got around to adding the Mad Hornets grill/garnish panel and 4V6 Toyota lettering. The rear bumper covers were an Amazon special and only cost $119 IIRC but still turned out to be higher quality and match much better than I anticipated:










I also got the correct (XR) rails for my Retrax Pro and got everything RE-mounted including drain tubes.
This this was a bit pricey but worth it IMHO. The water shedding seems to be tremendous and its really water "tight" with the exception of the tail gate, which I knew going in, since there are factory gaps there anyway.
The strength, and smooth operation of this thing, along with what appears to be very high quality of parts and design makes this thing really stand out. It also gives a super slick appearance to Sandy, and allows me to add the UpTopp bed truss I want to add later:









I managed to also get the Redarc Tow Pro Elite installed in the dash as well:






I tested the newly mounted tow controller and hitch and things have stayed pretty level with our OffGrid Expedition trailer (this shot being prior to swapping out the hitch, reversing the Max Coupler and removing the chrome):









More later, as I need to prep the truck bed with some dividers for our upcoming trip to NM.

Cheers!

 

Awesome to see the installed pictures and thank you for the kind words! It was a pleasure working with you.

 

Yep TB handled this one great! It was awesome customer service, and when I go to buy my bed truss I'll be going back to TB for sure.

 

Love that trailer!

 

Thanks! Its changed the game for my wife and I........we were primitive tent campers for +10 years prior, and a 6500 BTU furnace, 60L electric fridge, dual burner grill, 32 gal of water and hot and cold running tap along with a full hot water on demand shower has revolutionized the way we camp/overland

 

Wow and there is a bed inside right? All it’s missing is a bathroom! Crazy.. looking them up now.. lol

 

Yep Queen sized-ish. Its just a c-hair smaller than a real queen matress with memory foam and a 2" latex topper we put on it under the sheets. There is also a full PC/TV/BR combo I installed to edit and look over 35mm pics as well.
All aluminum, 1900lbs dry before batteries, fridge ect ect. The 270 deg awning is AMAZING and we have it fully lit with walls to include our LP fire pit.
TONS of storage in the back, and so much storage inside I actually cant reach the rear wall of the inside storage area with my arm, I have to actually get inside a bit to reach it all. Its insane really.
You can see how the 270 deg awning makes an entirely new space that feels like it doubles your area. Best money I have EVER spent on anything camping or overlanding related. It will be with us for decades.
The fold down galley/sink/stove is amazing when its pouring rain or really windy out.

 

Damnnnnn that’s awesome!!!! I like that a lot!

 

Couple pics of the exterior and awning with and without walls




Forgot to mention full 200w solar power setup as well for full deep bush dispersed camping